Labour’s return to the right – John Kampfner’s spot-on piece should be compulsory reading for progressives who’ve deserted the Lib Dems for Labour: ‘The race to the bottom is on. Labour and the Tories are vying for the lowest common denominator, for the title of defender of Little England.’

David Cameron, Phillip Schofield and mob justice in the age of the internet – the Telegraph’s Tom Chivers points a pitch-fork at the mob: ‘I’m trying to come up with a cleverer and more meaningful conclusion than this, but basically: for God’s sake, don’t go around accusing people of being a paedophile, or a homophobe, or anything else, unless you’ve got some bloody good evidence for doing so. Please.’

The Republicans Bet Everything, and Obama Won It All – the New Yorker’s assessment of how the election was won and lost: ‘The economy recovered just enough in 2012, Mitt Romney ran a mediocre campaign, Obama ran a strong one. Among the most important is a factor conservatives seem to have never reckoned with — their party has never recovered the public’s trust.’

A Look at British Life as an EU Outsider – a US perspective from the Wall Street Journal on a potential Brexit: ‘Exiting the EU might be politically tempting for Britain. Economically, it would be hugely challenging.’

Too many political stories are trivial. That doesn’t mean they don’t matter – Lord Ashcroft points out the truth political obsessives prefer all too often to ignore: ‘frustratingly, it is true both that most people do not hear a political message until well past the point at which politicians are sick of repeating it, and that they are more likely to notice small things than big speeches or policy announcements.’

The dying of the middle-class dream – Rafael Behr in the New Statesman: ‘The most successful election candidates in recent decades have been those who persuaded middle-class voters – or those who aspire to be middle class – that backing their party is the predictable, respectable thing to do. … There is no candidate in British politics who can pull off that trick today.’

Downing Street Does Need New People – Damien McBride calls for a broadening of the political class: ‘like all narrow gene pools, the effects are multiplied the longer the cycle is unbroken.’

McDonald’s is beating the McMandarins – Sue Cameron in the Telegraph helps explain why there have ben quite so many omnishambles lately: ‘Today only two of Whitehall’s 16 core departments have the same permanent secretary – the top official – as they did at the time of the general election two and a half years ago. And it shows.’